In 1995 this site started along with a class we taught at Coronado High School. Over the years we have added and added and added numerous pages and files to support our students and others interested in art, design, writing, and technology. This site now reflects our next phase. We retired from classroom teaching in 2013 and have been in the process of redefining ourselves by placing our efforts in our new venture...
writedesign redux
Enjoy the resources on WriteDesignOnline and please visit us at Granada Treehouse Studio and share our joy.
AP Studio Art Summer Assignment - (in process) An assortment of assignments, tasks, and projects intended to help students prepare for this rigorous course. You will find a work flow-chart to help students track their progress in all three of the portfolio areas: quality, breadth, and concentration.
Elements and Principles of Art and Design
Andy
Goldsworthy - Beneath the Surface Appearance - An
overview of Andy Goldsworthy and how he creates works in nature that
use line, shape, form, space, value, and texture to help focus our
attention.
Balance - gives definitions with examples of the forms of artistic balance, symmetry, approximate symmetry, asymmetry, and radial symmetry.
Color - Gives definitions with examples of how to use color, as well as compositional effects of color, uses and psychological effects, printing and computer color, spot color, and a color study chart.
Contrast - gives definitions with examples of how to use variations in patterns, edges, value, intensity, temperature, texture, size, and shape to show visual relationships.
Emphasis - gives definitions with examples of using focal area, color dominance, value, visual movement, difference, and shape to provide the viewer with context and content.
Rhythm and Pattern - Gives definitions with examples and a process for creating and using rhythm and patterns in art work.
Design
Rules of Thumb - Shares basic rules of thumb as well as elements and principles of art and design. Use
these as a good place to start. Feel free to bend these rules, but
only when you understand the spirit of the rule.
Audience - Gives a little insight into designing for your audience.
Image - Addresses types of images and elements that support your message.
Layout - Provides information on how to use elements within your page layouts for easier readability.
Typography - One of my favorites elements of design, this page addresses definitions and how to use type effectively.
Drawing 2 Music - A fun exercise with examples and tips on how to draw to music.
Fill the Well -
Assists in the active (or incidental) pursuit of images to refresh our artistic
reservoirs. Now includes a list of "inspirational" San Diego
sites.
Fill-the-Well - Process, media, and technique - This assignment provides students the opportunity to start a critical foundation step to creating art. Students will use a sketchbook as a tool to collect and develop ideas, experiment with media and techniques, and to start a library of life-art memories.
Historical
Context "Vitrian Man" - Shows a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
and how he integrated mathematics and art. This link also provides
a look at the historical and cultural context of art.
Identifying
Self - Character Traits - Provides students a vehicle to
identify their own character traits and develop a better
understanding of themselves using the creative
process.
Look,
Hold, Draw - Provides a starting point for learning to
draw.
Mobiles - Looks at the elements of mobiles and shows works from
Alexander Calder, Jackie Matisse, Andy Goldsworthy, and Henri
Matisse. Serves as the background information to the "Leaves, No
Litter" assignment where students develop 3-dimensional pieces to
support an anti-litter campaign.
Project 333 - To provide students a vehicle to broaden their comfort,
understanding, and use of the creative
process ultimately to explore the possibilities of living spaces and environments and to design their own. I got carried away with this project and realistically, it should be used as a bigger picture experiment to pick and chose elements that work for you.
The secrets photos
keep - Asks students to find the hidden clues in your family snapshots - Donna
Jackson - My Generation, March April 2002, p. 16 - provides steps
to see photographs with a new understanding.
Poetry
of Remembrance - Provides a look at holocaust poetry and how
it serves many purposes, the main one remembrance of an event we
hope will never repeat itself.
Roman
Vishniac - Children of a Vanished World - Shows how
photography functions as social conscience.
The Last
Expression: Art and Auschwitz - The Last Expression project is
a forum to explore the roles, functions, meanings and making of
art in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II, focusing on
the notorious site of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Pablo
Neruda Style Ode Rubric - Assignment Rationale: To understand
the nature of an ode, to take an everyday object and examine it
more closely. See metaphorical possibilities in written and visual
contexts (which in plain English means, how a term, phrase, or
image-which may be created by using typography-is applied to
something to which it is not literally applicable in order to
suggest a resemblance, as in " under a sky new-painted every
day ")
Writing Tools
Graphic
Organizers - Site directory to 20 graphic
organizers, including definitions and applications. The following
links display graphic organizers intended for use in the areas
of:
Analyze
- Shows interactions and describes central ideas.
Brainstorm
- Shows how different tools facilitate the brainstorming process.
Synectics
- shows how a graphic organizer can stimulate fresh thinking
during the problem-solving process.
One
True Sentence - "All you have to do is write one true
sentence. Write the truest sentence you know." - Ernest
Hemingway
Re-vision - Another check list, this time intended to correct your
vision.
Sense Web - Starts the
brainstorming process for creating show, not tell senses.
Show,
Not Tell - Shows techniques developed by Rebekah Kaplan to help
students write so that they are able to create a picture in the
reader's mind, to get away from the repetition of such empty words
as weird, really neat, beautiful, wonderful, and b-o-r-i-n-g.
The
21 Club: Drink the Words - Originated
by Frank Barone and Gary Bardshaw, this assignment pushes writers
to establish the criteria from which they
would measure all their other writing. 21
Club Feedback - Provides a matrix of key elements for peer
editing. The
21 Club: Rubric - Identifies assignment rationale, kickoff
pieces, steps of creative process, and grading rubric.PowerPoint Tips -
Includes tips and additional presentation links.
Setting
Goals
Setting Goals and Objectives - A list of guidelines that will help you develop a meaningful process to create achievable goals and objectives.
WriteDesign
Background - Shows the narrative submitted to the
California School Board Association's 1998 Golden Bell Awards and
provides program background information illustrated with quotes
from students, educators, and community members.
WriteDesign
Philosophy - Makes statements that embrace our
feeling about writing and design.
Sketchbook - Shares a well filled with daily insights and random thoughts.
Sketchbook,
The Beginning - In the beginning I started a sketchbook...ok, lame, but you have to start somewhere and this is it.
Sketchbook, Crayons - I never thought I would use crayons as a medium, but I did and enjoy using them. Try it, you will find lots of surprises.
The
adventures of my pal Pete - Many years ago, many lives ago, I
created a character - "My Pal Pete." The character was based on my
dog and best friend. As a result of life's mysterious journey I
had to leave Pete in California while I learned the ways of design
in the Big Apple. While taking a Spanish class, I
resurrected some of my drawings for a children's bilingual story
(still in development). Permiso, mi español es muy malo.
So, I received help from several friends, Lily Perez, Keara Sease,
and Jackie Schuller. Let me know what you think.
Tribute to
Lew - A tribute to the man, his partner, and his legacy
through images and words spanning 93 years.
Vita - For those of you interested in my professional
background, this is the place to see if I'm for real or just a
digital fabrication.
We hear the word no... (a flash movie) - This particular piece represents the
beginning of a series of flash collaborations with Melissa.